The Global Young Investigator (GYI) award recognizes the outstanding young ceramic engineer and scientist whose achievements have been significant to the profession and to the general welfare of the community around the globe. Nominations are open to candidates from industry, academia, or government-funded laboratory – across the world.
The award winner will present a keynote lecture at the Global Young Investigator Forum of the ICACC meeting. The award consists of US $1,000 honorarium and a certificate of achievement, as well as complimentary registration.
Nomination Process
The main criteria used in selecting the recipient of this award will be:
(1) the individual’s contribution to the field of Ceramic Science and Engineering, including expansion of the knowledge base and their commercial use and
(2) the individual’s contributions to the promotion of conferences and technical events, global young professional forum, and other professional events, which resulted in visibility of the field and international advocacy.
A nominee must be 35 years old or younger at the time of award presentation (January of the award year), and is required to be a member of The American Ceramic Society. Nominations can be made by any individual or group. Self nominations are permitted, but are not recommended/preferred. Nominations made by a sponsor who is a member of The American Ceramic Society are strongly preferred.
The deadline for nominations is July 1 in the year preceding the next International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites.
Contact
Send your nominations by email including a written statement of the nominee’s qualifications and contributions, to:
Amjad Almansour
amjad.s.almansour@nasa.gov
Award Winners
Daniel Oropeza
Daniel Oropeza is an Assistant Professor in the Materials Department at UCSB. He received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 2012, completing research on materials characterization for electromagnetic railguns. He earned his M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University in 2014, conducting research on structural health monitoring of laminate composites. Daniel spent two years at Lockheed Martin, where he assisted the Chief Scientist’s Office with multi-national research projects in thermal management, propulsion, and energy generation for hypersonic platforms. Daniel completed his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Mechanical Engineering in 2021. His doctoral research explored the fundamentals of binder jet additive manufacturing for ceramic materials, with published work on custom testbed fabrication, powder spreading and ceramic additive manufacturing (AM). He was a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the Materials and Manufacturing Technology Group, implementing AM processes to control the interfacial microstructure and thermomechanical properties of metallic materials. At UCSB, Daniel’s group couples the study of material synthesis and characterization, machine and equipment design, and manufacturing process fundamentals, to develop next-generation alloys and ceramic materials. Group expertise includes testbed fabrication, powder rheology and characterization, and sinter-based ceramics processing. Additionally, Daniel is leading an effort to develop a regional California consortium in the area of materials and manufacturing, the University Consortium for Materials and Manufacturing for Aerospace, Defense, and Energy (UC M2ADE).